William & Mary continued to show why they are one of the best offenses in the Colonial with a dominating performance in a 80-66 win over Towson in the second game of the CAA Quarterfinals on Sunday.
The Tribe started to pull away midway through the first half and never looked back. William & Mary led by as many as 16 in the first half, before Towson cut it to nine at the break.
The Tigers were able to trim the lead to three a few minutes into the second half, but the Tribe went on a 22-7 after that to seal the deal.
Although William & Mary was one of the more efficient teams in the country shooting wise during the regular season, ranking 33rd in the nation according to Ken Pomeroy, it was not at its best against a decent Towson defense.
The Tribe managed to go just 24-52 from the floor, hitting five percent less then what they averaged during the regular season. However, they were able to get the double-digit victory because of their three-point shooting and ability to get to the line.
While Towson went 6-25 from beyond the arc, William & Mary went 11-25. The disparity was even more pronounced at the line where the Tribe were 21-24, and the Tigers were 6-9.
Senior David Cohn led all scorers with 24 points, putting up his second big game in a row for the Tribe. He went 8-9 from the floor and 6-7 from the free throw line against Towson, and was 9-12 from the floor and 10-10 from the stripe against Charleston in their regular season finale.
Sophomore Nathan Knight had a solid game as well. Knight needed to have a good performance as William & Mary’s best big man. Towson is the CAA’s top rebounding team, and one of the better rebounding teams in the country too. Knight came up big with a double-double (16 points, 12 rebounds), and he helped the Tribe surprisingly win the rebounding battle against the Tigers.
This was the first time that the Tribe had knocked off the Tigers this season. William & Mary will now face No. 1 seed Charleston in the first CAA Tournament Semifinal on Monday, March 5 at 6 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network.
